


The Forgotten Man of War

by SeeingGhosts



Category: Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Diary/Journal, Gen, Hyrulean Civil War, Knights - Freeform, Knights of Hyrule, Kokiri Forest, Letters, Ocarina of Time, Oneshot, Poe - Freeform, Sacred Realm, Soldiers, Triforce, ocarina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-13
Updated: 2014-02-13
Packaged: 2018-01-12 05:56:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1182701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeeingGhosts/pseuds/SeeingGhosts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the Hero of Time begins to lose faith in his quest, he runs into Castle Town amid the death and destruction in hope for some sort of answer. Through the guidance of the mysterious Poe Collector, he finds a journal chronicling the events of the Hyrulean Civil War through a soldier's eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Forgotten Man of War

Under a waning moon, the hero chosen by the goddess collapsed in exhaustion. He fell straight to his knees, hitting the ground with a jolt. Silently he stared down at the grass. It appeared almost silver in the dim light, like it was masquerading as precious metal. Link wasn't sure he could continue with his journey. He had been injured time after time, relying on sickly potions and the occasional fairy to keep him up and running.

Link was beginning to embrace the idea that it might just be easier for him to give up his quest. If he kept going, he would never get a moment to pause and refresh. After running for hours, he couldn't help but feel this way. There was nothing but his desire to fall asleep and never get up. Link allowed his eyes to fall shut as if they were weighted down by stone.

"Hey!" a high voice said, the sound ringing out and stretching forever in the silence of the night. "Link! Get up, we have to go to Zora's Domain!"

Link shook his head, taking in the deepest breath possible. He was hoping that with the excess oxygen he would be reinvigorating. The frigid night air, however, only made him shiver. There was nothing around that seemed to be able to help him. A potion might have been able to ease his wounds or replenish his magic, but it wouldn't wake him up. It couldn't possibly make him feel that push to move forwards again.

"Come on, Link!" the voice whined. The fairy producing the words flitted over to his face, leaving a shimmering trail behind. "Dawn will be coming soon. If we hurry we can make it to Zora's Domain before then!"

 Link let out a bitter sigh, taking his hat straight off of his head. After staring at the forest green piece of fabric, he thrust it on the ground. It crumpled into a shapeless heap, all the meaning it symbolized disappearing. "What's the point, Navi?" he said, raising his eyes to look at the glimmering orb of a fairy who pestered him.

 "Something's wrong!" Navi replied, flying around in circles for emphasis. "The water isn't flowing through Zora's River, which means something happened at the source: Zora's Domain!"

 "No," Link said, biting his lip. "I meant, what's the point of even trying any more? I can't handle the responsibility. I'm a ten year old boy stuck in a seventeen year old's body. My only support is you, a fairy!"

 "That's not true. You have support from the Sages. You have support from Princess Zelda, wherever she may be. All the people of Hyrule are on your side! What about the goddesses? The goddesses chose you to be a hero!"

 "They gave me a sword, and let me use an ocarina. I can't do it anymore, Navi!"

 "Oh, come on!" the fairy complained. "Ganondorf will destroy Hyrule if he gets the Triforce and takes power. You and the Sages are the only ones who can defeat him!"

 "I know, I know," Link sighed. Unwilling to fight any further, he pulled out his ocarina and turned the object in his hand for a moment. The iridescent sky blue surface had grown cold, making his fingers ache. With a shake of his head, he moved a strand of golden hair off of his face. He then brought the mouthpiece up and placed his fingers on the holes dotting the instrument.

Navi the fairy fluttered around impatiently. The boy was just wasting his time at this point. She listened intently in order to figure out which song he was playing. Surely it wouldn't be the Song of Storms that would cause to open up and rain down on the fields of Hyrule. The Song of Time wouldn't make sense in the area, and neither would Zelda's Lullaby. But as she thought, bouncing around the air, she realized there was one song that would make sense.

Saria's Song. He would be calling his friend from his childhood. Saria was a Sage, she would certainly lend him aid and motivate him to rise up again! Navi was very pleased with this development. But of course, she had missed an important detail. Listening to the sound leap from his breath out through the Ocarina of Time, Navi realized Link was playing something entirely different.

As soon as he finished playing, she piped up. "Hey, Link!" she said. "Why did you call your horse? Zora's Domain is right over there!"

Link just shook his head again. He waited for the telltale whinny and the trotting of hooves that marked Epona's appearance. His horse, summoned by the magic of the ocarina, had appeared and galloped over in a matter of seconds. Epona was exactly what he needed at the moment: someone to carry him forwards without judging him. Navi, being a fairy, couldn't do the first. She seemed to be having difficulty doing the second as well.

After picking up his hat and placing it back on his head, Link hoisted himself to his feet with a grunt. After giving the horse a quick petting, he climbed on Epona's back. He gave a quick yell and dug his heels into her, causing her hoofs to start beating across the ground. Navi sped forwards to keep up with him.

"Oh, I see!" she said. "You're going to use Epona to help get you to Zora's Domain faster!"

Link didn't reply. Rather, he pulled the reins in the other direction and started going towards Hyrule Castle. The clouds swirling up above the formerly magnificent capital warned him to leave, but he wouldn't listen.

"Link, what are you doing?" Navi said. The quiver of fear sneaked into her voice. "Link, please! Come back. We can go to Zora's Domain, where it's probably safer!"

"I don't care about safer," Link said. He shook his head. "No, I just want to be able to do something more. I need a break. I want something interesting, something that doesn't have to do with Ganondorf and the fate of Hyrule. I'm sick of being forced to be the good guy."

"But Link," Navi replied. "Link, you were chosen to be a hero."

"I know," Link said. "That's why I don't want to be one now. I was chosen to be one, I didn't chose to be one."

"You're not going to find anything helpful in what's left of Castle Town!" Navi replied.

"It doesn't matter. That's where I'm going." He wasn't going to let a fairy stop him from doing what he wanted to do. Link continued galloping onwards as Navi continued to yell at him for it. Before long, he had made it up to the drawbridge.

Sprawled out in front of Link was what was once a bustling center of activity. He had been there when he was a child first making his way to the Princess Zelda who resided in Hyrule Castle. It had been a place of music and merchants, colors and light livening up the place. But now it was only a fragment of its former self. There were no residents but the animated dead and the ghosts of those Ganondorf had murdered.

He made his way through the front gate, taking a deep breath. He knew that there was nothing but horror waiting for him in the former Castle Town, and yet he decided to carry on anyways. Almost immediately he spotted a group of Redeads. Their rotting appearance and horrifying faces alone were enough to make Link's heart rush up to his throat.

He stared at them for a moment, staying rooted in place. His heart shook with the fear that he might alert them to his presence and then all of them would start coming after them. Closing his eyes for a moment, he thought about what he should do next. Then he took a single cautious step into the area.

Link began to tiptoe around Castle Town, terrified of his surroundings. It was difficult to see with the ominous clouds covering up the pale light of the moon. As careful as he was being, it wasn't enough. He ended up tripping on a stone, a fragment from the ruins of the town. Letting out a yelp of surprise, his heart immediately started to pound like a drum.

The Redead's moaning turned into high pitched screams. Link was now petrified with fear. He couldn't move no matter how hard he tried. He knew that Navi had fled to safer areas up in the air. He was alone and surrounded by monsters he could not defeat. This could be where everything would all end.

But in a miraculous second, he found his adrenaline returning and urging him to run. He didn't take a second to delay. He sprinted away and back towards the entrance to Castle Town, planning to bolt back over the drawbridge. From there he could hop back on Epona and escape. There was nothing more to it than that.

As he began running, he heard the sounds of more moaning following him. The Redeads were coming after him. Despite their slow movement, they could still scream at any moment. He didn't know when to expect it. Link couldn't allow himself to be caught in that situation again. He was so close to the drawbridge when he made the mistake of turning around.

His eyes popped open. He couldn't keep running out, they would just continue to follow him. He needed a better way to fix the problem. The first thing that popped into his head would have to be the solution. As Link whipped his head around, looking for anything to help him, he saw a door. Redeads couldn't possibly be smart enough to make their way through a door, could they?

Praying to the goddesses, Link bolted through the door. The jingling sound of Navi flying along came with him. He saw a blur of blue light and immediately recognized his companion. Breathing heavily, he slammed the door shut. This was as safe as he could be at the moment. He needed a way to regain his strength.

Of course, Link and Navi weren't alone. They turned around to see the figure of a man wearing a hooded robe. Taking a cautious step forwards, Link began to see more detail around him. He wore a crest bearing a Triforce. But it was evident that this was no friend of the Hyrulean Royal Family. Instead of a face, the man-or rather, creature-had a dark hole with a single red light emerging as an eye.

He held a stick in his hand which he was occasionally beating against caves that were placed on a shelf above him. Link watched as Navi flew up towards these cages and then zoomed back. Contained within were the souls of ghosts-Poes. Link felt his words choke in his throat as he attempted to say something. He wasn't being attacked, but he still felt afraid. This might be better than being pursued by Redeads, but not by much. Whoever and whatever this thing was, it was not a friend.

"Heh heh heh," the thing laughed, the voice husky and scratchy like a tree's bark. "Hello, young man. You must be very energetic, I can hear the sound of your heart pounding through your clothing!"

Link was just about to turn tail and bolt out the door when he heard the sound of banging. The Redeads were trying to break their way in. He couldn't possibly escape unless he wanted to run right into them.

"No need to be afraid," it said. "I am just a simple business keeper here."

"Business?" Link finally pushed out.

"You catch the Poes, I pay you for them. I am the Poe Collector, they call me. Who is they, you might ask? Well, hee heh heh...it doesn't matter, does it, young man?"

"Are you a consort of Ganondorf's?" Link said. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Navi quivering in fear. He pulled out his sword, hoping that he would not have to use it.

"Ah...violence, violence! It is unnecessary, heh heh heh...yes, the great Ganondorf has improved my business greatly, but I have no official ties to him, you see."

Although Link lowered his sword, he did not put it away. There was something about this Poe Collector that made him feel very uneasy. His words were suspicious and untrustworthy. All the while his singular red glowing orb of an eye surrounding by darkness looked to the hero.

"Do you know a way out?" Link finally said. "I can't open up the door without being attacked by Redeads, but I have to get out."

"You could stay a while...hee hee heh..." the Poe Collector said. "I can see that does not please you...here. I have heard rumors of a secret room in this place. It's a guardhouse, you see...I have been here for a long time, and yet I have not found it."

Link swallowed, wondering why the Poe Collector was giving away this information so freely. "Why are you willing to help me?"

"I need someone to go out into the world and capture Poes for me, hee hee hee," the Poe Collector replied. "Now...about that room...they always said that whoever bore the eye that could see truth would be able to find it..."

Navi, shaking rapidly as she flew back down, came back into the protection of Link. "The eye of truth," she whispered. "Where have I heard that before?"

Suddenly Link's mind connected these words together. He reached over to his pockets to pull out the Lens of Truth. Biting his lip, he raised the glass up to his eye and peered through it. Through the tinted haze, he could make out the world around him. The Poe Collector giggled as Link turned to face him. But he continued turning around, praying to the goddesses that he would find this room.

His prayers were quickly answered as the Lens of Truth revealed to him that there was a false wall. He walked through the space, hearing the Poe Collector gasp. It must have looked as if he had just walked through a solid wall. Navi flew right through as well, not letting anything keep her behind with the Poe Collector and his caged souls.

"We did it!" Navi said. "We got out."

"No, we didn't," Link said. "We just made it into another room. There's no door here." Just to be sure, he brought out the Lens of Truth again to perform a check. He had been correct, there was nothing there.

"But..." Navi said.

"We can wait here until the night ends," Link replied. "By then the Redeads will have gone away. They can't stand sunlight."

"We won't be near the Poe Collector," Navi said. "Phew!"

"Now it's just a matter of figuring out what we're going to do to pass the time," Link said. "I propose we do a bit of exploring."

"I thought you didn't like exploring any more," Navi replied.

"I never said that, Navi," Link replied. But before his fairy friend could say anything more, he had started to look around. It looked fairly similar to the other room, except everything was covered in a thin layer of dust. If it had been abandoned over the seven years Link had been kept away from the world, this wasn't surprising.

"I think it's a supply room," Link said. "I mean, look at all the weapons and armor. I wonder if any of it is still any good." He continued rummaging around, trying to keep himself entertained.

"What's this?" Navi said. She zigzagged through the air to catch Link's attention. "Link, come look at this!"

Link, who had been trying to get all of the dust off a helmet and polish it up, looked up. He gently set the helmet down on the ground, trying to avoid making too much noise. He made his way over to where Navi was continuing to bounce around. Looking underneath her, he saw what had caught her attention.

It was a leather bound book, a thick and well-worn journal. The pages within were torn in places, the exterior having a few dents and scratches. Engraved on the front was a golden Triforce. As Link turned open to the first page, he began to piece things together.

"Navi, this is fairly old," Link said. "This is Hyrulean Civil War old!"

"Well, keep reading!" Navi urged.

Now fascinated in the journal's contents, Link sat himself down on the ground. He was going to have to get all of that dust off of him once he got up again, but for the moment it didn't matter. He just wanted to see what this journal was all about.

_I find it terrible that the first day I am writing in this journal has to be about war, but that is just the way things are. Hyrule has erupted into war, and I as a knight serving the Royal Family must follow my duty to protect them._

_Every race and every person in our fair land is pining after the Triforce and the Sacred Realm. But if we allow those with foul hearts to reach such power, I fear for our future. It is that sort of thought that keeps me on my feet._

Link's eyes ran past this first hand history of the Hyrulean Civil War. Having been raised with the Kokiri, he had never heard much about the conflict. It had always been more of a fairy tale, but with this journal sprawled open in his hands he finally realized just how real the situation was.

With Navi peering over his shoulder, Link flipped through page after page of the man's account of the war. At the bottom of each entry, he had signed his name: Arnic. Despite his dedication to fighting and helping the Royal Family, he often spoke of home. Woven between the rants filled with blood and terror was a nostalgic reach back to his wife, Medilia.

It was like Link was right there with Arnic as he fought against the forces from the desert. He was battling Ganondorf long before Link had even been a thought, and so now this new hero could relate. But this soldier had been long forgotten. The only memory left of Arnic was this journal, and it had remained in the secret room for at least seventeen years.

_Medilia is with child. She sent out a letter to inform me of this long ago, but it was lost among the various battles and only made it to me now. I am both ecstatic and terrified. My child, my son or daughter, is going to brought into this world of chaos and violence. They might end up on the run for their entire life. Their childhood might be one of fear._

_Yet I feel proud and happy. I will have a child to bring into this world. I can only hope that I may return to Medilia before she bears the baby. But I do not know if this will be the case. I pray to the goddesses for her safety day and night._

Link bit his lip, afraid to know what might happen next but still wishing to continue. His curiosity got the better of him, and he turned the page. His eyes flicked over the words as the battles got bloodier. Much of the entries became obituaries for fallen friends and Arnic's fear for what would be coming for him next.

Link continued to read through it, not wanting to miss a detail of Arnic's story. But as he kept going, he found that the pages of the journal were running out. He had read all the way to the final entry, his eyes straining to continue in the low light.

_The Interlopers have surrounded our army. The Knights have been worn out and our numbers have dwindled. We are no match for their powerful magic. There is very little hope left. In the air I can feel a battle coming on, one more filled with killing and bloodshed than ever before._

_The only thing that is keeping me going is Medilia. She has sent out a letter to me. She is still alive, and she has bore a son. I have missed this momentous occasion, but I cannot go to see her. But in this letter she also tells me of a plan. She wishes to take our son somewhere safe, where he can live out a full and happy life._

There was a spot of ink where Arnic must have gotten distracted for a moment. But the text soon continued. Link's eyes flew over it in a feverish rush to find out what had happened.

_I have just received another letter from Medilia. It is not good news, not at all. She has been injured, and she is going to the Kokiri Forest. I mean to say that this has already happened. She is taking our son to be raised by the guardian of the forest, the Great Deku Tree. He will be safe there._

_But Medilia...my Medilia. Her words are devoid of light and hope. She is dead now, I can feel it in my soul. The very last of her energy was used bringing our son to safety. I can only pray now to the goddesses that she has succeeded._

_We are being called up to arms now. The battle with the Interlopers is beginning. I cannot hope for Medilia any longer, no more than I can hope for myself. This battle will be my last. I will be contacting the messenger. I want this account to live on somewhere._

_Maybe he could bring it to the Kokiri Forest for my son to see what has happened. But no, this is too cruel a story for a young boy. It doesn't matter at this point. I am running out of time._

_This is my goodbye to Hyrule. I hope I have served you well._

_To my son, in the faint chance you will ever read these words, I hope you will find more success than your mother and I. But Medilia...she was brave. I sincerely hope that I was brave as well. All that I ask is that you be brave as well. Pursue a better Hyrule in whatever way you can._

_I am off to war now. Farewell._

_-Arnic_

Link swallowed for a moment, his mouth dry. "The Great Deku Tree," he said. Navi was silent for once, knowing that her comments would not be of any help at the moment. "The Great Deku Tree said I was Hylian."

Link squeezed his eyes shut. "I never had a mother or a father that I knew of, but I was Hylian. I am Hylian. He told me before I left the forest. I never truly belonged with the Kokiri. Arnic was my father. Medilia was my mother. They're both dead."

He couldn't help it when tears came rushing to his eyes. There had always been some part of him that hoped that somehow his parents would be alive and well somewhere. But at least now he knew their true fate.

"My father was a Knight of Hyrule," Link said, his voice gradually steadying. "He fought Ganondorf and all the other evil forces to protect the country and died in his service. Yet here I am, complaining about trying to do the same."

Navi still refrained from replying. She didn't want to ruin this moment.

"I am Link, son of Arnic and Medilia. I come from the line of the Knights of Hyrule. They fought until the very end. Now, I must do the same in my parent's memory. Navi?"

"Yes?" she squeaked.

"Tell me when it's daylight. We've got a task appointed by the goddesses to complete!"


End file.
